I understand insurance death spirals. However, collision and comprehensive aren't mandatory either and aren't in a death spiral. People buy them because they want the protection. Not many people buy umbrellas, but they are not outrageous. Collision, comprehensive, and umbrella insurance are individ...

Thanks for the details. I saw that option in TT and read somewhere about it, but didn't look too deeply. I just assumed that you were still required to send in an attachment listing each transaction... If you file by mail, this is true. But if you file electronically, you don't send in 1099s. Perha...

Cloud-based software usually charges you when you file. If they allowed you to see the form, then you could file on paper without paying them. Most of them will allow you to see the form if you pay first. And that is an important reason for using downloads. If something is entered wrong (either bec...

For 2 cars/2 drivers in Chicago (where insurance isn't cheap) we are paying $49 every 6 months for 250k/500k uninsured/underinsured. To be honest, I cannot fathom why yours costs that much. Illinois has mandatory UIM coverage. Since coverage is mandatory, the risk pool consists of the entire popula...

While I’m not a big fan of health insurance companies I don’t think their profits are a huge driver of the increases. Insurance companies don't just increase the premium to increase their profits. The Affordable Care Act requires a Medical Loss Ratio of at least 80%. As soon as an insurance company...

- I can't cite a percentage, but our homeowners insurance has not gone up very much at all. In fact, it went down last year because the automatic percentage increases in coverage had, over a few years, resulted in much too high a valuation. I used the State farm calculator (middle quality) to reduc...

Over the past 5 years I have noticed an average health insurance increase of 20% per year, home owners insurance increase of 10% per year and auto insurance increase of 8%. What are the underlying reasons for these consistent [AND ABOVE INFLATION/CPI] increases year over year? From the small BH sam...

I have a new car coming this month and Geico has expressed a large increase will be coming for it. Granted it is far more expensive than the worth of the 5 year old I am driving now but Progressive, Hartford and a few other phone numbers have been collected for as soon as I get the VIN #. Don't cal...

I also believe, but am not certain, that most insurance companies that use the credit only do so when you initially get coverage. Not checking your credit every 6 months and adjusting rates. Insurance companies review your credit history periodically. It won't be every 6 months, because they have t...

I was also under the impression that the liability with auto/home is *cheaper* than the liability under umbrella, so use the rule of thumb to max out auto and/or home liability and reduce the umbrella by $1M. Usually, but not always. If you have lots of discounts, then auto and homeowners will cost...

1) Cloud-based versions that I have seen do not allow easy switching between forms-based entry and interview entry. I like to be able to easily navigate between those two views. Cloud-based software usually charges you when you file. If they allowed you to see the form, then you could file on paper...

Finally, the ability of Lemonade to disrupt this industry depends on whether they can deliver lower costs. The big target here is the commission paid to the agent. Lemonade, like Geico and others will not have traditional agents. State Farm agents used to get 15% of the premium on HO policies. Lemo...

The Lemonade website says that their policies are written on a Named Peril basis. This is not competitive with HO policies written on an All-Risk except for things excluded basis. For Renters and Condo policies, this is not an issue. This "Named Peril" distinction is eye-opening. So the implication...

My point is that they have funding to withstand underwriting losses while they tune their model, and their bar to profitability is lower than their competitors. The whole insurance industry has been taking underwriting losses on auto insurance for many years, but nobody worries that they’ll stop wr...

Traditional homeowners insurance considers a 40-60% loss ratio “break even,” because they spend 40%+ on loss adjustment, marketing, and other expenses. Lemonade automates most claim handling, so their cost loading is a fraction of their competitors’. That is why they have received huge investments—...

I've used both. I don't consider one particularly that great compared to the other. I am using H&R Block this year. They keep pushing through updates. That makes me wonder, when will the software calculate my taxes properly so I can file my return? Or are these updates things like keeping the progr...

The Vanguard REIT Index Fund includes REITs that own apartments and office buildings, but it also includes REITs like data center operators. These companies rent space for computers, but they also charge customers for electricity and Internet service. The TIAA Real Estate Account owns apartments and...

The unique thing about the TIAA real estate fund is that it actually owns most of the buildings, and rents the space out. The expense ration of about 1% might seem high, but I suspect it is much lower than actually buying the buildings and managing them yourself. I like it because it lets you own c...

For normal 1099s or ones that show withholding? I can believe that they're included if it shows withholding. The reason for attaching W-2s and any 1099s showing withholding to a paper return is they're your receipt for taxes withheld and you need it to claim it on your return. But if no withholding...

I was very confused about this too, until I found a sentence in Pub. 514 that clarified things. In short, if you are a US investor, and you invest in US-located funds (RICs), then your capital gains and losses associated with sales of shares of those funds are considered US-source income, even if t...

I've even used tax software that allows you bunch all the cash donations together w/o listing the individual charities. Guess that just means you either document it on the tax return or retain that documentation offline if IRS asks. I don't really understand the point of having to document each ins...

I was hoping it would be similar to how you can bunch multiple donations to the same charity into one entry on form 1040. Oh, well--thank goodness for copy and paste! You could do it anyway and see if the IRS sends you a letter. They probably won't. I'm just telling you the way you're supposed to d...

My wife and I each made contributions to our two kids' 529 plans every month during 2017. Do I list each of those individual contributions separately (so I would have 48 separate entries just for 529 contributions, since we have two kids and I have to report my wife's gifts on my form since we are ...

If you have foreign tax paid at more than one brokerage, the order in which you enter the various amounts matters very much in Turbo Tax. After reading the little "additional information" in Turbo Tax, I deleted my entries and re entered with largest tax paid first, i lowered my federal tax $700. W...

There's no doubt that Form 1116 is worse, but neither Schedule D or any of the worksheets compute the carryover to next year . Line 6 and 11 are for the carry over from last year , just like line 10 of the 1116. Compare this to line 29 on the 1990 Schedule D , this number carries forward directly t...

- What type of "statement" is the IRS looking for? Just a one or two liner saying the deduction is for moving expenses and to see Form 3903 - Moving Expenses? - What tax filing software allows me to attach a statement to Form 1116? "Attach statement" just means that the IRS wants you to itemize wha...

There isn't even a line for carryforward capital losses on Schedule D or any of the worksheets. (There was a couple of decades ago). I think the IRS just doesn't do carryforward right anymore. I blame TurboTax. Schedule D has lines for carryover capital losses. Short-term carryover is on line 6, an...

If the IRS is tracking the carry forward, I don't know why they don't just have a schedule/line for it, going back 10 years. Just seems overly complicated. If your credit is under $300/600, but you don't have tax obligations that year to credit against, why force filling 1116 (which doesn't even ha...

It looks like Form 1116 can get quite complicated with five different categories of income and a separate Form 1116 required for each. In addition, unused tax credit can be carried forward up to ten years. It might simplify the detailed computation if a worksheet was available that covered the full...

Form 1116 Line 10 is labeled "Carryback or Carryover (attach detailed computation)". That seems to imply that the attached computation would take priority over any information provided in previous filings of Form 1116. It seems unlikely that the IRS would store that information for future use. It's...

i just tried to force H&R block to record the un-used foreign tax credit, but I can't seem to get it to "stick". Any tips? Print out and file on paper. The H&R Block software has problems with zero amounts, and it's also very bad at filling out form 1116. You have a form 1116 that's zero, so you're...

The entire time I've been claiming the FTC, this threshold has been $600, so it clearly is not tied to inflation or any other measure. Out of curiosity, does anyone know how long this value has been stuck at $300/$600 (single/married)? The simplified election was introduced in the 1998 tax year wit...

I do want to add that GEICO has always been a good company to deal with and this adjuster is perhaps just following procedures. The only thing I believe we are in a grey area is because of prior damage. In my view, the insurance should be trying to give me what my car was worth the day before the i...

Current status: The insurance adjuster is now taking the approach of looking at the market value of a similar car (some $10500) and then subtracting off the $6700 hail damage payout and saying the value of the car should be $3800. I am saying that he cannot just subtract of that ^$6700 now because ...

The other factor with some kinds of insurance coverage (that can make it worthwhile) is convenience or lowered risk of hassle, etc. This factor, in my opinion, is not mathematically financial. For example, it makes sense to me to have homeowners/liabiliity coverage for things like your dog bites a ...

Gieco and all of the other insurers seem to be increasing rates (across the country). They all took a big hit with the hurricanes and flood damaged cars (amongst other insured losses on homes, storm damage, etc). That would raise Collision/Comprehensive rates, not BI/PD although I'm sure their cost...

I'm seeing a 15% increase in 'bodily injury liability' and a little more than that in 'property damage liability' & 'underinsured motorist' from Geico, over what I paid last fall for 6 months. GEICO increased its base rates in Washington state by 12.9% in August 2017. Your premium will depend on wh...

We live in NW PA. Not much chance of natural disasters here! Maybe flooding (in some localities) and collapsed roofs from many feet of snow. Flooding is not covered by homeowners insurance. Roof collapses are. A lot more roofs are also getting replaced after hail damage. The societal expectations a...

So apparently in my state, total uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage cannot exceed individual bodily injury. Which means I have to pay for adequate coverage in case I hit a single pedestrian, but if a drunk driver hits my car full of my family members we're all screwed. :oops: You can buy umbr...

They have been hounding me with email and messages to sign up, even though I don't have much cash with them. If I'm under $250,000, I assume SIPC coverage is sufficient. Any benefit or harm to having FDIC coverage instead? The Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program provides up to $2.5 million of Federa...

GMO is a firm ran by Jeremy Grantham, a smart, skeptical, well spoken guy... but a perma-bear... and his forecast record/ranking reflects that https://www.cxoadvisory.com/gurus/ https://www.cxoadvisory.com/3200/individual-gurus/jeremy-grantham/ It hasn't done well for investors to be so bearish... ...

I'm currently filling out my taxes and have a meager ($40) foreign tax credit as a result of holding VTIAX in taxable. TurboTax went imported everything okay but is now asking me, as I am about to file, to fill out box 6d "Foreign source amount included in dividends" on my 1099-DIV from VTIAX as pa...

Your explanation of "If you see a 30% rate increase, then at least 20% of it is driven by claims activity in your state or region" appears to mirror the Amica reps explanation, although I just have not been aware of any reports of events that would lead to a 22% increase in HO insurance claims in m...

Wow, your replacement cost is 800k and you only pay $900??? My Amica policy is about that much on <400k replacement cost. Granted it has not gone up anywhere near as fast as your has.... Credit-based insurance scoring is illegal in Massachusetts. It is not unusual to see a 30% discount on homeowner...

Do you think that the fires and mudslides out West are a factor? How about all the hurricanes in the south and east coast? Even if you made no claims, many other people did and you have to pay for them. This is a common misconception about homeowners insurance. Homeowners insurers set their rates s...

State Farm has required that my contents coverage be 75% of the coverage for rebuilding the house. When I checked this with my agent, I was told that in order to insure for replacement value rather than depreciated value, We had to have a content coverage amount equal to 75% of the house coverage. ...

I absolutely hate paying my homeowners' insurance bill, perhaps more than any other bill. They seem to consistently raise rates way above the cost of living. On top of that, we are told not to submit claims because of the risk of cancellation, and with the CLUE reports, it may be difficult to pick ...

$300,000 liability coverage on my homeowner's policy costs me $8 a year. I'd rather pay the $8 than worry about a $300,000 gap before the umbrella kicks in. As other posters have said crank up the deductible & reduce contents coverage to lower the homeowner's premium. North Carolina is not a litigi...